


Akira's Wounds

by tailspark



Category: Persona 5
Genre: I tried to write a decent conclusion but I don't think I'm done yet, Late game plot twist is mentioned but skimmed, M/M, Please finish the sixth palace before reading, Spoilers, The rest of the main party might show up later but they haven't spoken yet
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-25
Updated: 2017-06-06
Packaged: 2018-11-04 22:16:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11000121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tailspark/pseuds/tailspark
Summary: Everything is the same, but the interrogators before Sae actually injure Akira.





	1. Can you stand?

**Author's Note:**

> First I've written in a very long time so I'm very sorry.

“Akira, come on, let’s go. Your friends told me everything. …Can you stand?”  
  
“Akira. Hey, can you hear me? We need to hurry.”  
  
In the haze of all the pain, Akira felt a pair of hands carefully prop him up and lift him to his feet.  
  
“Come on now, Akira, we need to get you out of here. If you stay here they’re going to do even worse to you.”  
  
It was Sae. She was here to go through with getting him out of the detention facility, brought back into the interrogation room by the app Futaba had planted on the phone she took from him.  
  
“What happened to you,” she asked as she began to move towards the door with him, one arm around his shoulders, the other firmly grasping his belt.  
“I-I think…” he manages before the pain wracks his stomach and leg once again, forcing a low grunt and contorting his face into a grief-stricken grimace. After a pause, he continues. “My leg. Ah-…my leg’s…heavy. It doesn’t move…and it hurts.”  
  
Sae frowns, eyes taking on a sadness that looked unbecoming of her. “Sounds…oh, god, that sounds bad, kid. We should hurry, I’ll call Makoto when we get to the car. Do you know a doctor for them to contact back at Leblanc?”  
  
“Yeah. Takemi. Hav- Gah! Have them call Dr. Takemi…”  
  
“Got it. Hang on, kid… God. The things those men will do to a kid…”  
  
\--  
  
Once they reached Sae’s car, Akira was carefully laid across the back seats, injured right leg propped up on the seat, left dropped to the floor as it was fine. The ignition was started shortly after he heard Sae’s door open and close. After that, he lost consciousness.  
  
\- Meanwhile at Leblanc -  
  
“Ohh… Ohhhh, I hope he’s okay! I hope everything is alright… I hope-I hope-I hope,” Ann rambled as she paced up and down in the small isle between the café’s bar and the booths.  
  
Ryuji was first to interrupt her. “Ann, Ann! Dammit, Ann, I’m worryin’ too and you’re just makin’ it all worse!”  
  
“Lady Ann, I know how worried you are, just like the rest of us. Like I said though, Niijima-san should be able to carry it out. Plus, you can always pet me if it helps you at all. Really, any time.” Morgana’s attempts to calm Ann did indeed reach her, though with questionable success. She scooped him up immediately and hugged him tight, evidently not at all calmed. “Come now, Lady Ann! You’re worried about him but you’re willing to break me?!”  
  
There was some strained laughter at Morgana’s expense, almost fake-sounding with the worry on everyone’s mind weighing them down. It was then that Makoto’s phone began to ring on the table. She’d laid it there in preparation for what was to come- what was coming now.  
  
INCOMING CALL - SAE - ACCEPT?  
  
Makoto answered the call and left her phone on the table, putting it on speaker.  
  
“Sis? What’s going on, is everything alri-“ was all she could say before Sae cut her off.  
  
“I have Akira with me, we’re headed back to Yongen as we speak. Now listen, one of you needs to notify Dr. Takemi immediately. Have her on standby at the end of the backroads with a stretcher and one of you to help her carry it. I’d recommend someone like Sakamoto or Okumura, someone who could lift him on their own. Perhaps Kitagawa would do as well.”  
  
“D-Dialing her now,” Sojiro blurted from behind the counter, already halfway through his phone list searching for Takemi’s number.  
  
Ryuji stood up and took Morgana from Ann, volunteering himself to take the task of assisting Dr. Takemi. “Mona’n I’ll go! He won’t be let in the operating room so when we get there I’ll have ‘im come back here and let you all know how he’s doin’.”  
  
All in attendance nodded silently, and Sae, who had heard Ryuji and Sojiro over the phone, simply said “Very well,” and hung up.  
  
With that, Ryuji darted out of the café, Morgana on his shoulder.  
  
\--  
  
Doctor Takemi was ready when Ryuji and Morgana arrived, still on the line with Sojiro and carrying a first-aid kit in one hand. “Oh, the boy you mentioned is here, sir. We’ll be off now, I’ll contact you if anything happens. …Yes, thank you.” Hanging up, she then instructed Ryuji to grab the rolled-up stretcher and follow her to the end of the backstreets, where Sae would arrive. They didn’t have to wait very long, Sae’s car came into view within minutes, and Ryuji was instructed to lay the stretcher down parallel to the curb of the road and roll it open. The car parked, and Sae practically jumped out, already informing the three that their friend had not regained consciousness the remainder of the trip.  
  
When Sae opened the door, the sight shocked all three helpers. Ryuji froze for a moment, mouth wide open and a pang of fear shook him. Takemi, ever composed, let out an “Oh, my…” while Morgana sighed and mewed a soft “Oooh no…”  
  
Doctor Takemi moved first, Ryuji next, regaining himself at the realization that only by doing so could he help move Akira. Ryuji made sure to be as careful- as purposeful and delicate- as he could, lifting Akira from the waist, kneeling between the unconscious young man’s legs and hoisting those legs on his own hips as he waddled forward through the car.  
  
With Akira placed on the stretcher with care, Doctor Takemi quickly opened her first-aid kit and pulled out a couple ice packs, placing them under Akira’s right knee and thigh. Having done all she could for the moment, the good doctor nodded to Ryuji, and the two lifted the stretcher and its precious cargo in unison. On the way to the clinic, Ryuji couldn’t help but stare into Akira’s face, as much of it as he could see anyway. Akira’s head was turned to the left, his mouth open slightly, eyes closed almost peacefully, a touch of pain evident only in the slight inward curve of his brow.  
  
_“God, even when he’s unconscious and shit, I almost feel bad, starin’ like this. Don’t worry buddy, you’ll get better, we’ll make it through this. And…and then- then I can tell you all the shit I’ve been keepin’ from you, before I lose that chance for good. Hell, what if this happens again? Nah, no not now, none of that. He’ll be fine, because I’m gonna be there.” ___  
  
\--  
  
With Akira safely admitted into the clinic’s operating room, Ryuji sent Morgana away to deliver the news to their friends, as he waited to one side of the room for the doctor to do her work, giving her space. Doctor Takemi’s first task was to undress the man and drape a hospital gown over him, it could be tied in the back later, when we was conscious. With this done, she set about easing the swelling of his leg to a stop, achieved with more ice packs and some aloe-vera ointment. Once finished, she sent Ryuji out of the room to prepare for an X-ray in order to pinpoint the fracture and determine what type it was.  
  
\--  
  
Many long, painful minutes of waiting outside the room passed, and Ryuji progressively slumped further in his seat, his mind a mixture of despair and anguish. Takemi’s voice came through the door, calmly beckoning him in. Nerves slightly eased by the lack of urgency to her tone, Ryuji entered.  
  
Akira now lay in a slightly different position on the bed, his leg raised on a pillow, and the hospital gown loosely flowing over his form. “He’ll be just fine,” came the abrupt reassurance from the doctor, sitting in her chair and scribbling down some notes. “That’s what you wanted to hear, right? Well it’s true too, anyway. It’s a closed, incomplete fracture. His stomach is bruised too but no broken ribs, so he’ll just need a leg cast and a lot of rest. Crutches too if he’s gotta walk anywhere in the next month or two, but I’ll have no such thing for at least two weeks starting tomorrow, got it? Anyway, I’d expect him to regain consciousness sometime soon, so if you want to stay here with him for a while you can. I’m going to call Sakura-san and tell him the good news.”  
  
Ryuji remained motionless for a moment, awash with relief, as he processed the information given, and a smile slowly spread across his face once more. Takemi smirked at him as she left the room. The moment the door closed, he rushed to the bed and hunkered down next to it, quickly grabbing Akira’s hand and holding it gently. Minutes pass before Ryuji notices a stray tear lingering on his cheek. Wiping it away with the back of one hand, he whispers to the both of them, “I… I’m just glad I didn’t lose you, man. I don’t know what I’d do without you by my side, so I’ll be here by yours until you wake up. Longer, even.”  
  
Ryuji then lifted Akira’s hand with both of his and let his head fall, face-first, into the bed next to Akira’s shoulder as he cried softly for a while.


	2. Tears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You don’t need to apologize for anything, Ryuji, and you’re right, it’s not weird. Not at all.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Previously: Ryuji was crying at the side of the unconscious Akira's bed in Takemi's operating room, holding his hand the whole time as the doctor applied a splint.
> 
> Also, I'm sorry this took so long, I've been very side-tracked, so tonight I sat down and revised what I had for this chapter and finished it. I'll see where to go from here, feeling a time skip ahead but we'll have to see.

Amid a haze of dark unconsciousness, senses return one by one as Akira begins to wake.

_I’m lying on my back._

_My leg feels stiff, cramped…but not in pain._

_There’s something pressed tight against my hand on both sides, something between my fingers… My hand is raised, too._

_I feel something soft against my shoulder. It’s shaking a little, just like what’s on my hand._

_…They both quake in uneven intervals._

_I…hear a soft groan very near me, it’s too muffled to make out. It’s interrupted by another sound often…a kind of whistle._

_…There’s a light against my eyelids now, and the sound is getting clearer._

_This pressure on my hands…feels like skin. It’s warm._

_…Someone is crying, they’re holding my hand and they’re crying._

_Where am I now? The last person I saw was Sae._

Akira opened his eyes slowly, and proceeded to briefly shut them again in reaction to the light, quietly making a noise of discomfort.

Hearing him faintly, Ryuji lifted his head and went silent for a moment, mouth open slightly and eyes red with tears.

“Y-you’re- …Hey man,” Ryuji chokes out, throat thick and dry.

“…Ryuji? Is that you?”

“Yeah. You’re fine, man. You’re gonna recover.”

“Huh…?” Akira’s response proceeded slowly, “why are you here, Ryuji? What happened?”

Ryuji’s grip on Akira’s hand softened, and his eyes lost focus for a moment- he was confused, thinking. “I… You…” he fumbled, “you blacked out in Niijima’s car. Dr. Takemi and I got you here, and she patched you up. You’ve been out for a few hours, but I… I’ve been here with you. I couldn’t let go of your hand, I haven’t even checked my phone! It’s gone off at least a few times now, it’s gotta be Ann…she was real worried, y’know- “

Ryuji blushed and stopped his frantic rambling once he noticed Akira staring at him, puzzled. No doubt his mind was still hazy, unsure of how to properly account for all that was happening or _why Ryuji was still holding his hand after what he’d just said had been hours_. Ryuji averted his eyes, shaking, as Akira’s face slowly began to show signs of understanding.

“You were more worried than her then, weren’t you?” came Akira’s response. There was no malice, it was a tender curiosity, spoken as he tightened his own grip on Ryuji’s hand.

Ryuji looked up, his face once again warped in an expression of grief and terror as he was reminded of his worry. “I…! Yes, I was!” he said through clenched teeth and closed eyes. “I don’t want to be so worried again in my life! It felt like forever waiting for you!”

Looking down again, expression shifting to one of defeat, he continued. “…The doc told me you were breathin’ fine when she came in and put on your splint, and I knew she was right, but…I didn’t wanna’ just up and leave you, so I held your hand and waited. That’s all I could do…”

Ryuji felt Akira’s other hand as it was placed gently atop the shaking mess of their tangled fingers. Akira sat up slowly after this, then in an instant, their hands were parted as Akira pulled him into a hug, and said softly into his neck, “It’s okay, Ryuji. I’m fine, everything will be fine. You can cry all you need to if you haven’t already, but personally… I’d much rather see you smile.”

Sniffling still, though finally able to stop his tears, Ryuji replied. “Thanks… You don’t know how much I needed this, man…”

“You know, I’m beginning to think I do,” Akira chuckled faintly. “We could do this more often if you really want, you know.”

Ryuji, caught off-guard by this offer, froze. His heart raced and he was glad for the fact that his face was now behind Akira’s head, so he would not be seen blushing once again. “What…do you mean?” he asked pensively.

“Well…” Akira began, “Clearly holding hands is no problem now, so I was just asking if you’re comfortable with more physical expressions, like this hug. It does feel nice.”

Ryuji choked on his own breath for a moment on hearing this. “…Ahem! Uhh… I…oh, man. I can’t say I’m not. I just- I mean…” He sighed as he trailed off.

“What is it?” Akira asked as he pulled away, gently pushing Ryuji back just a bit to see him better.

Ryuji forced his eyes shut as they met Akira’s, and his lips took on a small, sad frown.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Akira asked again as he placed one hand, delicately, on Ryuji’s shoulder and brushed his neck with his thumb. “If you’re not sure you can always say no.”

“I- no, it’s…not that. I…actually like it. A lot. Honestly, I- can I say somethin’ weird? Well, maybe it ain’t so much _weird_ , just-“ Ryuji stopped and opened his eyes to Akira, gazing at him, focused and receptive. “Right, um… I…think I like you,” he strained out, burying his face in his hands as he finished. “There! I said it, I’m sorry!” Akira could hear, muffled through Ryuji’s hands.

Akira’s thumb stopped moving and he remained silent for a moment as he found the right words.

“You don’t need to apologize for anything, Ryuji, and you’re right, it’s not weird. Not at all,” he settled with, and slowly took hold of Ryuji’s wrists and parted them from his face. Locking fingers with Ryuji’s left hand in his right, and lifting the boy’s head with his left, he continued.

“Actually, I’ve felt the same since we were attacked in Kamoshida’s Palace. I awakened to Arsène because I wanted to protect you, and I swore to myself to always be there for you, to look out for you, to keep you safe. So if you say you like me, I have no right to judge, because I like you too.”

Ryuji’s jaw was slack, his eyes wide and blinking, yet his ears still understood. As he took in Akira’s warm smile and reflected on every affectionate moment they had shared over the past seven months, he felt one last tear form in his eye, this one very different from the rest- this one tear was a tear of joy, the first he had shed in a very long time, perhaps in years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, thank you for reading, and once again feel free to leave feedback.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, let me know what you thought and feel welcome to share any thoughts. I may or may not respond but I'll read them and see if there are changes I should make.


End file.
